Deep Into The Dark by P.J. Tracy

1.  This is not the Monkeewrench series. 

2.  It is supposed to be a series featuring LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan and murder suspect Sam Easton, but as it turns out, Nolan plays a pretty minor role.  Sam and Melody Traeger take over the novel.

3.  I knew the villain on his first appearance.  That's fine if the author intends for you to, but I think it was supposed to come as a surprise. 

Deep into the Dark kept my interest because of Sam and Melody, but the plot was not believable.  Either plot, I guess, because there was a secondary plot thread. 

The eccentric and endearing characters that helped make Monkeewrench such a fun series are absent in Deep into the Dark, which is more of a straight forward crime novel. 

If I had not been hoping for some of the fresh and funny aspects of Monkeewrench, I would have liked it better, but the author (whose mother and partner for the Monkeewrench series has died) is entitled to take a new path with a different vibe.

Read in August.  Blog review scheduled for Dec. 30, 2020

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press.
Crime.  Jan. 12, 2021.  Print length:  352 pages.

Shadows of the Dead by Spencer Kope

 This is the third in the Special Tracking series by Spencer Kope, but the first one I've read.  (Since reading this one in April, I've gone back and picked up the first book.)

Magnus "Steps" Craig is part of an elite FBI team.  His partner in the field is Special Agent Jimmy Donovan, and Diane is the IT member of the team.  Steps has a special ability, one that gives him an edge--however, only Jimmy is aware of it, and the two never mention it.

Following a high speed chase ending in a wrecked vehicle, the driver escapes and a young woman is found in the trunk.  The FBI Special Tracking Unit has been called in, and Steps and Jimmy are glad to be working with a team they've worked with successfully in the past.

The team manages to track and capture the suspect who seems psychotic, babbling about broken people, his need to fix them, and repeating that "Eight" needed fixing--in a disjointed conversation with himself.  He mentions the Onion King, but it is unclear whether this is a real person or a delusion.

When the young woman regains consciousness, she reveals two things:  the man who abducted her and the man in whose car she was found are not the same man...and she has been referred to as Eight.

The suspect is eventually identified as Murphy Cotton, and it appears that perhaps there is an Onion King and that the two have worked in tandem.  Steps and Jimmy, working with the local team, suspect there will have been seven previous victims...and perhaps a ninth has already been taken.

Steps and Jimmy have been partners for five years and work well together.  They  exhibit both determination to unravel the threads involved in the investigation and a deep sense of humanity and compassion.  While the plot isn't particularly believable, Steps and Jimmy (and Step's unusual ability) kept me engaged. 

I might look into the previous two books.  Read in April; blog review scheduled for Aug. 10.  
(I did read and review the first book in the series, Collecting the Dead)

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books
FBI/Crime/Procedural.  Aug. 25, 2020.  Print length:  336 pages.

A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow

Sometimes a book becomes an education as well as entertainment.  Stabenow's A Cold Day for Murder (Kate Shugak #1) is so firmly planted in the Alaskan setting and indigenous culture, that I had the feeling of almost being present.

The beginning is a little slow but atmospheric as the setting and characters are introduced.  Stabenow excels at both, giving depth to the narrative.

Kate Shugak, an Aleut, left her confined home and culture to pursue an education.  She then worked for the Anchorage AG office as an investigator for seven years--until a dreadful case sent her into exile after a grievous wound.

A Cold Day for Murder pulls Kate back into investigation when a Park Ranger goes missing and an investigator sent to find him disappears, too.  

An strong, independent woman, divided between cultures, Kate remains comfortable with herself, bridging the separations with skill and decency.  She is, nevertheless, unhappy at being manipulated into the search for the two missing men, but she also has personal reasons for accepting the challenge.  

There are some truly amusing parts that are balanced between the sad situations of many of the indigenous characters.  Kate accepts both as a part of life and doesn't get morally upset about people she cares about poaching or the alcoholic problems that beset her friends and relatives, taking it all in and balancing her affection for flawed characters with their self-destructive behavior.  

Stabenow won an Edgar for this, her debut novel.  Kate is an intriguing, self-sufficient character, and I look forward to continuing this series!

Purchased.
Mystery/Crime.  1992; 2019.  

The Cutting Place by Jane Casey

DS Maeve Kerrigan is determined to find out who is responsible for the death and dismemberment of a young journalist.  At the time of her death, Paige Hargreaves was investigating the Chiron Club, an elite men's club with rich and powerful members.


There is a reason that elite men's clubs so frequently make suspenseful plots: exclusiveness, secrecy, the wealth, power and privilege of members, the connections and pressure members are able to apply, and frequently, the abuse of women.  Whether organized like the Chiron Club, or less organized like Jeffrey Epstein's friends, power and influence make the news. 

Jane Casey's Kerrigan/Derwent series is one of the best crime series around, and the relationship of DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent combined with excellent plotting keep this series in my top five favorite in the crime/police procedural genre.  

Each of the books can be read as a standalone, but beginning with the first book allows the pleasure of watching the bickering relationship between Maeve and Josh develop into a trusting partnership.  Not always an agreeable one, frequently fraught with different opinions, but when it comes down to it, the partners come through for each other.  

Maybe all that needs to be said about Jane Casey's  The Cutting Place is that Maeve Kerrigan and Josh Derwent are back.  (The Cutting Place did have a surprise for me.  Something I didn't expect.)

Start at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end, but don't miss this series!

Read in June; blog review scheduled for Aug. 4.

NetGalley/HarperCollins
Police Procedural/Crime.  Sept. 3, 2020.  Print length:  400 pages.

Gone to Darkness by Barbara Nickless

Gone to Darkness by Barbara Nickless is the 4th book in the Sydney Parnell and her K9 partner Clyde series.  I saw it recommended on someone's blog, but can't remember whose.  Anyway, I'm glad I gave it a try!

Although there are references to previous books, Gone to Darkness worked just fine as a standalone.  

An Iraq war veteran, Sydney Parnell and Clyde, a Belgian Malinois,  worked with the railroad police in the earlier books, but have just joined the Denver Homicide Squad.  She has a new partner in Detective Len Bandoni, a weathered veteran of the force.

When Sydney gets a call-out from a colleague in her former unit with the railroad police, she has a personal reason to reply to her friend.  When she arrives on the scene and finally locates him, Heinrich is unconscious from a blow to the head.  When he comes around, he remembers little about what happened.

Sydney and Clyde do a preliminary search of the area to see if Sydney can determine more about what happened.  She discovers what appears to be a small makeshift shrine and a bit of bloody chiffon.

With the second sense of a war veteran, Sydney is certain there is a body involved--but where?  

 Sydney, Clyde, and Bandoni find themselves in an investigation that gets deadlier and more threatening.  Well-written and suspenseful, the plot involves Incels (Involuntary Celibates) and the Manosphere.  

The only thing I didn't like was the prologue.  Too many books begin with a prologue now and sometimes they work.  For me personally, this is the kind that doesn't work because it gives too much away.  Aside from my dislike of the prologue, the characters, police procedural, and narrative kept me riveted .  I will most definitely be looking for the previous books in the series.

Read in April.  Blog review scheduled for May 10.

NetGalley/Thomas & Mercer
Crime/Police Procedural.  June 2, 2020.  Print length:  364 pages.
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I found and read all the previous books and reviewed them before this post was scheduled to post.  I can't wait for the next books in the series.

Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa, The Last Sister by Kendra Elliot, and Out of Body by Jeffrey Ford

 Night of the Dragon, the final installment of Julie Kagawa's Shadow of the Fox trilogy, follows the little band of heroes to the final conflict with evil.  Hoping against hope to stop the Master of Demon's plan, Yumeko, Tatsumi, Reika, Okame, Daisuke, and the little ghost maiden Suki  embrace the challenges and put their lives on the line for the chance of saving the world.

I love the characters.  I loved the first two books.  This final book, however, deals more with the battles and monsters than with the characters.  I'd be interested in the percentage of time spent on battles vs time spent with characters who have made the trilogy so much fun for me.   The purpose was, perhaps, to increase suspense, but for me, it became simply frustrating.  I quit caring about how many heads and limbs were lost and just wanted to get on with the plot.  Even the appearance of the silent game player that gave a late twist to the plot...didn't quite feel right.

So, if you've been following Shadow of the Fox, you will want to read this to discover a number of secrets revealed and how our charming band of hopefuls end up.  You may not agree with my opinion of too many lengthy battles.

NetGalley/Inkyard Press
YA/Fantasy.  March 31, 2020.  Print length:  384 pages.  

 The Last Sister by Kendra Elliot is the first in her new Columbia River series.  I really enjoyed Elliot's Mercy Kilpatrick series and was pleased to find another series that might keep my interest.

I don't usually listen to audio books, but I did listen to this one while doing mundane chores.  It kept me entertained, and I did a lot more  mindless tasks than I intended.  It was certainly a different experience from reading.

Small town in Oregon, a young black man hanged and his white wife savagely stabbed to death, a weird connection (or two or three) to a murder 20 years previously.

The main character Zander Wells is from a previous series that I haven't read.  A second book is scheduled for this year, and I will probably listen to it as well.  And dust, mop floors, do laundry, do baseboards and ceiling fans, etc.  :)

Kindle Unlimited
Mystery.  January 2020.  Print length:  328 pages.

I rarely read novellas, but I've recently read two, The Order of the Pure Moon Reflecting Water by Zen Cho (which I've scheduled closer to publication) and Jeffrey Ford's Out of Body.

From description: "Jeffrey Ford returns with Out of Body, a new horror story about a small-town librarian whose sleep paralysis becomes something much more."  

OK.  A rather dull librarian experiences out of body episodes that introduce him to the mysteries of the night world.  Murders, vampires, a serial killer, and other strange experiences.  

I was slowly drawn in to this one, mostly because I had no idea what to expect and still don't know what to say about it.

Strange, but not really my thing.

NetGalley/Macmillan, Tor/Forge.
Horror? Fantasy?  May 26, 2020.  Print length:  175 pages.

I'm slowly making my way through two nonfiction books:  The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and Growing Old by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas.  

Anthropomorphzed Books by Johnathan Wolstenholme found here 

When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald and Glass Houses by Louise Penny

I know a lot of people loved When We Were Vikings, and sometimes I did, too. 

from description:  For Zelda, a twenty-one-year-old Viking enthusiast who lives with her older brother, Gert, life is best lived with some basic rules:

1. A smile means “thank you for doing something small that I liked.”
2. Fist bumps and dabs = respect.
3. Strange people are not appreciated in her home.
4. Tomatoes must go in the middle of the sandwich and not get the bread wet.
5. Sometimes the most important things don’t fit on lists.

But when Zelda finds out that Gert has resorted to some questionable—and dangerous—methods to make enough money to keep them afloat, Zelda decides to launch her own quest. Her mission: to be legendary. It isn’t long before Zelda finds herself in a battle that tests the reach of her heroism, her love for her brother, and the depth of her Viking strength.

I loved Zelda, who suffers from cognitive disabilities as a result of fetal alcohol syndrome, and sympathized with Gert, who had been responsible for her most of her life. 

It wasn't the characters that didn't work for me, they were well realized.  It was the narrative that bothered me.  Also, Zelda's ability to read and retain information,to add and use words to her vocabulary daily, as well as her ability to problem-solve were a little puzzling.  I know college-educated adults who would have difficulty reading nonfiction works about Vikings and remembering in detail.  Zelda shows both maturity and immaturity in equal measure, almost as if her intellect was fine and only her emotional responses were childlike. 

There were parts I loved, but something (I'm not sure exactly what--a kind of ambivalence or doubt that kept creeping in) kept me from wholeheartedly believing.

I do recommend When We Were Vikings.  A sense of compassion permeates the story.  It is easy to fall in love with Zelda and to admire Gert's commitment to his sister.  The support of AK47 and others is another uplifting element to this modern myth of heroes, Valkyries, and villains.  

NetGalley/Gallery, Pocket Books
Literary Fiction.  Feb. 1, 2020.  Print length:  335 pages.  


Louise Penny's Glass Houses begins slowly with a murder trial, but moves back and forth in time between the inciting event and the trial.  

Nearly a year before the trial, a strange masked figure wearing a hooded black robe appears at a Halloween party.  No one recognizes the figure and the figure remains silent, ignoring the questions of party goers.  Puzzling, but since it is a Halloween party, most of Three Pines residents and the two visiting couples find it merely curious.  

The next day, the figure appears on the village green, silent and seemingly immobile--and curiosity turns to uneasiness.  When Armand Gamache approaches it, questioning its identity and intent, the silence and lack of physical response begin to feel menacing.  The figure has hurt no one, but the silent vigil is unnerving for the community.  They want Gamache to do something, but no laws have been broken.

Eventually a guest mentions the cobrador del frac--a Spanish debt collector dressed in top hat and tails who follows people who owe money and refuse to pay.   

He adds that much less is known about the medieval origin of the cobrador, a collector of moral debts--who acted as a conscience and stalked his target until confession or penance occurred.  

The idea of an incarnation of the ancient cobrador--taking no action, speaking not at all, but shaming the guilty party--causes citizens of Three Pines and their guests to wonder whose moral crimes have attracted the cobrador.  And who has called a Conscience to Three Pines.  

In a discussion of conscience, the question is asked about why the Holocaust happened.  Myrna answers, "It happened because no one stopped them.  Not enough people stood up soon enough.  And why was that?"  

Clara suggests fear may have prevented people taking action,  and Myrna responds, "Yes, partly.  And partly programming.  All around them, respectable Germans saw others behaving brutally toward people they considered outsiders.  The Jews, gypsies, gays.  It became normal and acceptable.  No one told them what was happening was wrong.  In fact, just the opposite."   

Armand follows up a little later with "We see it when bullies are in charge.  It becomes part of the culture of an institution, a family, an ethnic group, a country.  It becomes not just acceptable, but expected.  Applauded even."

The cobrador is conscience, and someone in  the tiny village knows that he or she is the guilty party.  Then a murder.  

As the narrative moves back and forth between the court scenes and the arrival of the cobrador in Three Pines nearly a year earlier, the background is gradually filled in.   

Gamache faces a dilemma that results in a decision that will bother his conscience with either  dreadful choice.  

Character-driven and complex, Glass Houses is another outstanding offering from Louise Penny.

Now, I have only three more books to be caught up with this remarkable series.  

Purchased.
Crime/Mystery.  2017.  Print length:  391 pages.

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One of my favorite books last year was Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile:  A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz.

Here is an interesting interview:  Erik Larson on Writing Wartime Life During the London Blitz. 

How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid

Val McDermid is one of the best in the business.  Her novels are not the skim-the-surface style of many more recent crime writers, but character driven plots with depth and multiple intertwining threads and themes.

How the Dead Speak is the 11th in the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series and an uncomfortable one in some ways, because after their last outing Tony Hill, psychiatrist and forensic profiler, is in jail for manslaughter and Carol has resigned from active police duty.  

How is Tony managing life in prison?  He is writing a book and we get to see snippets as epigraphs to chapters.  Surviving in a prison population is crucial, and Tony does what he can to aid fellow prisoners and to protect himself at the same time.

Carol, who has been trying to keep busy, suddenly finds herself involved with a couple of situations that require her expertise.  Tony's vile mother has asked for Carol's help and a request to investigate a possible miscarriage of justice for the Innocence Project give Carol an outlet for her skills.

The former ReMIT team has a case in which hundreds of bones have turned up when a new development on the grounds of a former convent/girls school.  The bodies date from the time the nuns were running the school some 20-40 years ago,  and if that isn't enough, more recent bodies of young men turn up as well.  Paula McIntire and other familiar characters take the lead in this plot thread.  I'm wondering if they will be mostly on their own in future books.  

A lot going on in McDermid's latest Tony Hill/Carol Jordan installment!

Read in July; blog review scheduled for Nov. 11.

NetGalley/Grove Atlantic
Police Procedura/Crime.  Dec. 3, 2019.  Print length:  480 pages.

Cold Woods by Karen Katchur

Description:   "Buried bones of the past rise to the surface in this chilling mystery from the bestselling author of River Bodies.

When the long-buried bones of a man turn up in the middle of December, Pennsylvania homicide detective Parker Reed knows he’s in for a cold case.

Trisha and her friends were teenagers when Trisha’s stepdad went missing. Now, thirty years later, his remains have been found in the mountains. The women have always known there was more to his disappearance than meets the eye, and they must confront their grim past. Secrets can stay secret a long time in the lonely Appalachian foothills—but not forever.

When Parker and his partner identify the remains, their investigation leads them to Trisha’s childhood home. But the deeper Parker digs into the crime, the more he realizes that the truth isn’t always simple. In fact, it’s so complicated that even Trisha and her friends don’t fully understand what really happened in those cold woods."

Cold Woods offers a different take on mystery/crime in a couple of ways.  You would think the main character would play a larger role but instead, the author concentrates on the three friends and their families...and this makes the mystery more interesting.  What actually happened to Trisha's stepfather?  There are a number of secrets that come to light as the novel unfolds.  The conclusion was also a bit unusual, but I liked it.

Read in March; blog review scheduled for July 30, 2019.

NetGalley/Thomas & Mercer
Mystery/Crime.  August 13, 2019.   

Shamed by Linda Castillo

Last year, I read Down a Dark Road, my first foray into Linda Castillo's Kate Burkholder series. (Thanks, Kay, for the heads up on this series.)

Shamed is another excellent entry set in Painters Mill, Ohio and the Amish community.

from description:   An Amish grandmother is murdered on an abandoned farm, her seven year old granddaughter abducted. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder plunges headlong into a case that quickly becomes a race against the clock. She knows the longer the girl is missing, the more likely a tragic outcome. The family of the missing girl is well thought of—a pillar of the Amish community. Their pain is palpable and they cooperate in every way, but Kate soon learns they’re keeping secrets...

There are now eleven books featuring Kate Burkholder, Chief of Police in Painters Mill, and the two books that I've read have had compelling mysteries with complex situations.  Insights into the Amish community and the contrast of the peaceful lifestyle and the violence that intrudes makes the books even more engrossing.

Read in March; blog review scheduled for June 30.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press
Mystery/Crime.  July 16, 2019.  Print length:  320 pages.
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I love Steve McCurry's photographic blog and this entry is about reading in different settings, in different countries, for different reasons.  

Everywhere I go in the world, I see young and old,rich and poor, reading books.Whether readers are engaged in the sacred or the secular,they are, for a time, transported to another world.

The Liar's House by Carla Kovach and Some Interesting Takes by Behavioral Scientist Paul Dolan

The Liar's House is the fourth in the series, but I haven't read the first three.  DI Gina Harte has a past having to do with her abusive husband that she would rather not be made public, but years later, her equally despicable brother-in-law turns up in her current case.

In her current case, Jade Ashworth has been murdered, and 
seven years ago, Samantha disappeared.  At first glance--nothing appears to connect the two women.  Yet as Gina and her team investigate, the connections appear.

A suspenseful plot with several twists.  My main problem is with the number of controlling men and the women who allow the control.  It isn't that I don't realize that this sort of thing can happen, but this book has way too many women who are easily dominated by the men in their lives.

The plot involves a wife-swapping group, and most of the women don't want to take part, but are pressured by their husbands or partners.  Of course, the women have to have been habituated to that kind of pressure even before the "parties," but it is discouraging to read about so many women in unequal relationships, who feel it so necessary to have a man in their lives that they give up their own autonomy.

The reviews of this one are overwhelmingly positive, and it is suspenseful and the guilty party unexpected, but it was depressing.  

Read in May.  Blog review scheduled for June 28.

NetGalley/Bookouture
Crime/Police Procedural.  July 2, 2019.  Print length:  337 pages.


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Behavioral scientist Paul Dolan "analyzed data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS)"   that indicates single women without children are happiest: Unmarried Women Are the Happiest and Healthiest.  The same survey is also in The Guardian and The Independent.  Interesting and taking in several factors that make sense, and yet....

This might be true if there were no pressure to marry and have children, but there is tremendous social pressure to have a partner and few women can resist it.  A bit of a conundrum.   "Despite the benefits of a single, childless lifestyle for women, Dolan believes that the existing narrative that marriage and children were signs of success meant that the stigma could lead some single women to feel unhappy."

It is interesting that I read these articles after reading The Liar's House which already had me curious about why so many women find such unsuitable partners--women who are willing to sacrifice their own beliefs and who choose partners who make them miserable.

Turning Secrets (Stonechild & Rouleau) by Brenda Chapman

Another suspenseful Stonechild & Rouleau mystery. 

Is Nadia Armstrong's death suicide or murder?  Who's leaking information about the case?  Who is the older man high school student Vanessa is dating?

The suspicious death of young Nadia Armstrong is taking up much of Kala Stonechild's time, and she regrets not being home enough with her niece Dawn.  In addition to complications of the current case, Kala is frustrated by the knowledge that someone on the Major Crime team is leaking information,  and Kala suspects Woodhouse, who has been a thorn in her side in previous books.  

While Kala is often late getting home, Dawn has more time alone, and when her father approaches her, she is able to keep their budding relationship a secret from Kala.  Dawn knows that her mother has forbidden any contact with Dawn's father and that Kala agrees, so she feels guilty, but wants to help him.  

Dawn's classmate sixteen-year-old Vanessa has been behaving strangely since developing a relationship with a man in his twenties.  Vanessa tries to draw Dawn into a double date at the request of her boyfriend, but Dawn is decidedly wary as she is aware of Vanessa's unhappiness.

A lot of disturbing elements come to light as the case progresses.  Chapman draws from social problems that are frequently in the news, making them more personal, less abstract.  One of the pleasures in a good series is developing a relationship with characters, and Chapman's characters are interesting and well-developed.  Sometimes they are in the background, sometimes they take center stage.  Most surprising in Turning Secrets is that by the end of the book, one character behaves in an unanticipated way.  Just when you believe you have the characters in a definite groove, someone jumps the track.    

Read in November; blog review scheduled for May 14, 2019.

NetGalley/Dundurn 

Detective/Crime.  June 4, 2019.  Print length:  408 pages.

Some Choose Darkness by Charlie Donlea

I remember the first time I read about Asperger Syndrome, and I've been intrigued by the variation in individuals, in both the variety of symptoms and the severity, ever since.    The Autism spectrum is wide, but on the higher end of the scale, those with Asperger Syndrome may be extremely intelligent and capable of handling many of the debilitating symptoms by developing coping mechanisms to help them through daily challenges. 

Rory Moore, a forensic reconstructionalist, has difficulty in social situations, struggles to make eye contact, and has intensely focused interests, but Rory has also had a childhood that supported her--both her parents and her great-aunt Greta have given her a sense of stability.  Her long-term partner Lane Philips understands her, and his career dovetails with Rory's so that they have a shared interest.

So...on to the plot.  Rory works with the police and with her partner's Murder Accountability Project, both of which allow her to work on her own.  After her father's death, Rory finds herself in a difficult situation when a judge requires her to become involved with the prison release hearing of a murderer her father defended decades ago.  The murderer known as The Thief (because the bodies were never recovered) was convicted of only one murder, even without the evidence of a body, but is suspected of the disappearances of the other women as well.   

Rory has a law degree, but has never practiced, partly because of her difficulty dealing with people, but the judge gives her no choice.  As she prepares for the hearing, she is puzzled by some of her father's notes and continues digging.  

Told in two time-lines, the book shifts from Rory in the present to Angela Mitchell, a young married woman in 1979, when women in Chicago were going missing.  Rory becomes fascinated with her father's involvement with the case and with Angela Mitchell, who suffered from some of the same symptoms Rory has.  Rory recognizes that Angela was on the Autism spectrum, which was not widely recognized at the time.  Angela had developed a hyper-focused interest in the missing women and was doing research on her own when she  disappeared shortly before The Thief was arrested.

Some Choose Darkness is compelling and has a few twists that kept me engrossed throughout.  I'm hoping Donlea is considering a series with Rory Moore.

NetGalley/Kensington Books
Crime/Suspense.  May 28, 2019.  Print length:  304 pages.

The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and The Scholar by Dervla McTierney

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a new author for me.  Have any of you read her books?  She is evidently a prolific YA author (The Fixer and The Naturals are most mentioned).

The Lovely and the Lost may be the start of a new series.

from description:  Kira Bennett’s earliest memories are of living alone and wild in the woods. She has no idea how long she was on her own or what she had to do to survive, but she remembers the moment that Cady Bennett and one of her search-and-rescue dogs found her perfectly. Adopted into the Bennett family, Kira still struggles with human interaction years later, but she excels at the family business: search-and-rescue. Along with Cady’s son, Jude, and their neighbor, Free, Kira works alongside Cady to train the world’s most elite search-and-rescue dogs. Someday, all three teenagers hope to put their skills to use, finding the lost and bringing them home.

Both the idea of a child who lived wild before being adopted and the search and rescue dogs intrigued me.  I liked all three quirky adolescents as well.   Kira's struggle to overcome her past and to blend in to society are aided by  Cady Bennett, the woman who found and adopted Kira; Jude, Cady's son and Kira's adoptive brother; and Free, her eccentric friend.  

I enjoyed the book, and I'm interested in The Naturals series.   

Read in March.  Blog review scheduled for April 28, 2019.

NetGalley/Disney Book Group
YA Mystery.   May 7, 2019.  Print length:  336 pages.

The Scholar (Cormac Reilly #2) by Dervla McTiernan.

I missed McTiernan's The Ruin, but hope to pick it up at some point.  

Detective Cormac Reilly's partner Dr. Emma Sweeney stumbles across the body of Carline Darcy, heir  to a powerful pharmaceutical company.  Emma calls Cormac, and he arrives first on the scene.  In spite of possible conflicts of interest, Cormac takes over the case.

Pressured to keep the investigation quiet, Cormac continues digging--eventually questioning his decision to take the lead in the case as evidence that Emma may know more than she has revealed emerges.  Emma may be more than a key witness.

Compelling and twisty, the novel reveals some problems with the research at the Darcy laboratories, the callousness and corruption of Carline's rich and powerful grandfather, and the grief of a fifteen-year-old boy who is searching for his missing sister.

Read in March.  Blog review scheduled for April 28, 2019.

NetGalley/Penguin Group
Crime/Police Procedural.  May 14, 2019.  Print length:  377 pages.

Tick Tock

Tick Tock by Mel Sherratt is the second in the Grace Allendale series, although I have not read   Hush Hush, the first one.

from description:

TICK…

In the city of Stoke, a teenage girl is murdered in the middle of the day, her lifeless body abandoned in a field behind her school.

TOCK…

Two days later, a young mother is abducted. She’s discovered strangled and dumped in a local park.

TIME’S UP…

DS Grace Allendale and her team are brought in to investigate, but with a bold killer, no leads and nothing to connect the victims, the case seems hopeless. It’s only when a third woman is targeted that a sinister pattern emerges. A dangerous mind is behind these attacks, and Grace realises that the clock is ticking…

Can they catch the killer before another young woman dies?

For Grace and her team there is little to go on--but for the reader, the anonymous voice that appears in occasional interspersed chapters offers some clues.

Are the murders the work of a copy cat (that killer is in prison), a new serial killer, or something else entirely?  There is a fresh concept in this one, and the reader is allowed to glean some information from the chapters with the anonymous female voice that appears in certain chapters.

Read in March; blog review scheduled for April 19.

NetGalley/Avon Books UK
Crime/Police Procedural.  May 2, 2019.  Print length:  385 pages.  

Bones of the Earth, Girl Most Likely, Shattered Dreams

Bones of the Earth by Eliot Pattison. I read the first book in this series when it first came out nearly 20 years ago, and although sadly I've missed some of the more recent installments, Pattison's Inspector Shan series is one of the best series out there.  Beginning with The Skull Mantra in 2000, the series ends with Bones of the Earth , the 10th and final book in the series.  

Inspector Shan, a disgraced Beijing investigator, was sent to a Chinese gulag in Tibet in the first book.  Shan is horrified by the treatment of the Tibetan monks and intrigued by the courage and calm acceptance the monks exhibit.  In each successive book, Shan's situation improves as he proves himself a skillful investigator and useful to Colonel Tan.

In Bones of the Earth, Shan witnesses the execution of a Tibetan, then finds himself investigating the deaths of an American woman and an archaeologist, and realizes that the executed Tibetan was not guilty of corruption, but a witness to the murders of the woman and the archaeologist who were trying to prevent the destruction of a Tibetan holy site.  As usual, Shan is in a precarious situation as he attempts to bring the guilty to justice.

While I'm sad to see this series end, I'm happy that the conclusion provides a sense of hope for Shan and the people he loves.  I was pleased to see a couple of characters from earlier books make reappearances.  And I loved Tara, the goat!

This is an excellent series with characters the have depth and dimension, complex mysteries and investigations, and exemplary research and knowledge of Tibet and its people.  

Highly recommended.  To understand why Eliot Pattison writes about Tibet.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press
Mystery/Crime.  March 26, 2019.  Print length:  352 pages.




Max Allan Collins' Girl Most Likely has received mixed reviews on Goodreads (from 2-5 stars).  It starts with a brutal murder told in the first person, and the murderer voices his concerns about his next victim(s) in several other chapters.  Who and why?

Set in Galena, Illinois, much is made of the Scandinavian roots of Krista Larson, the young woman police chief of Galena.  There is an awful lot of "virtue signaling," a phrase I've not heard of before, but was actually in need of for a recent novel.  Thanks to reviewer Glen for providing me with the perfect way to describe an author's tendency to keep pounding the characteristics of a good character as if I needed constant reminding.

There are WAY too many details of clothing, which irritated me as well.  Yes, clothing details can be revealing, but details for every item, for almost every character feels like filler.

OK, Krista must discover the guilty party among her former classmates when a murder during their ten-year reunion occurs. 

NetGalley/Thomas & Mercer
Crime/ Police Procedural.  April 1, 2019.  Print length:  272 pages.  

I was hoping for something in the line of Craig Johnson's book, but Shattered Dreams and it's protagonist Sheriff Virgil Dalton didn't fulfill that hope.  On the other hand, the reviews in Goodreads at this point are all 5 stars, so I'd suggest that it just wasn't a good fit for me.

Shattered Dreams annoyed me with the constant references of how good a character was (because once wasn't enough for me to understand) and with dialogue that turned into philosophical musings rather than conversation (because everyone I know talks like that). Thankfully, Glen's term of "virtue signaling" is perfect.

Obviously, the series is loved by many readers, but not every book fits every reader, and I'll stick with Craig Johnson and Longmire for my western mysteries.

NetGalley/Beyond the Page Publishing
Crime/Western.  March 22, 2019.  Print length:  297 pages.

------------National Letter Writing Month--------------

a mix of letters and postcards

A Merciful Silence by Kendra Elliot

The series can work as a series of stand-alones because each book contains a completed plot--nevertheless, I recommend beginning with the first book (A Merciful Death) to get the background on Mercy Kirkpatrick and the prepper philosophy that she can't quite escape.

After a torrential rain, the skeletal remains of five people are revealed.  An echo of the murders of two families twenty years previously calls into question whether the right person was arrested at the time.  The similarities are too apparent to dismiss.  Was the wrong man convicted all those years ago or is this a copycat?

Mercy must connect with the only person who survived the earlier murders--a young woman who, as a child, was left for dead and who can't remember the night her family was murdered.

Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series, as well as the Mercy Kilpatrick novels: A Merciful Death, A Merciful Truth, and A Merciful Secret. Kendra is a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born, raised, and still lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her husband and three daughters, but she looks forward to the day she can live in flip-flops. Visit her at www.kendraelliot.com.

I continue to find this series suspenseful and engrossing, and I look forward to more.

Defund Libraries?  NO!